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Monster House is the second title in THQ’s
all-conquering film adaptation line-up this summer. After Disney/Pixar:
Cars performing fairly well on all console formats, the
home console releases for Monster House were met with quite
a degree of disappointment. With Disney/Pixar: Cars
receiving its best outing on the NintendoDS, the same is hoped of Monster
House, but having sneaked onto shop shelves with little more
than a handful of screenshots, hopes may not ride too high.
To begin with, it would be a categorical insult if it
wasn’t stated before going any further that Monster House
on the NintendoDS is a rehash of Midway’s Smash TV,
through-and-through. Now with a glossy 3D finish and a Map System,
the title does very little to distance itself from its inspiration.
The basis of the game sees you playing as either of the
film’s three protagonists from a top-down perspective,
fending-off hundreds of marauding enemies in the shape of flying
plates and books, chairs, loose floorboards and grandfather clocks.
Once a Room has been completed, the player returns to the Map in
order to choose which Room to progress through next. Each character
is armed with a Water Pistol to dispose of enemies and, whilst each
has a suggested difference physically, there is really little to
tell apart each avatar’s shooting ability.
The Room design is poor, to say the least. The player will
often find themselves running from enemies back against an
Invisible Wall a few centimetres from where the wall actually
appears on-screen, resulting in the player losing one of their five
Hit Points from an error with design, as opposed to play. Awkward
corners and nonsensical placement of Exits damage a title that was
borne of a love for the classics. The over-hanging obstacles also
infringe far too much on gameplay. While the original Smash TV
featured occasional pipes or bars above the on-screen action, they
were little more than a slight distraction. However, with Monster
House running on a system ridiculously more powerful than those
that accommodate Smash TV, the developers have clearly
sought to expand upon this feature and, unfortunately, have
ended-up with little more than an obstructive mess. The usual array
of Power-ups are available, including alternate weapons for each
character, Health, a Speed Boost and a Shield, amongst others.
The Control System is possibly the most rewarding, yet
wholly predictable feature in the game. Moving your avatar with the
D-Pad, whilst shooting by placing your stylus in the desired
direction on the Touch Screen – a conversion of Smash TV
that sprung into mind almost as soon as the NintendoDS was
announced as to include a Touch Screen – the game’s set-up is
reliable, even though movement occasionally feels clunky. No basic
weapon in the game will run out of ammo, instead, the Water
Pressure will drop with repeated use, causing the range to
decrease. To increase the pressure, the player must rub up-and-down
on the Water Pressure Meter on the right of the screen.
The graphics  demonstrated by Monster House are poor
at best. Whilst the 2D renditions of the characters are faithful to
the movie, none of the 3D models bear much more than a passing
resemblance to their film counterparts. Seemingly snapped together
from broken bits of code, many of the Character Models feature more
than one Skin Texture or, at times, no more texturing than a basic
colour. The Rooms are detailed, but never really differ in
themselves and have clearly been constructed using Identikit
development.
Monster House is a tired game. A few major problems
hold the title back from being the all-conquering Smash TV
for the NintendoDS that we’ve all been waiting for. Some
expansive ideas mean nothing when presented in a title on the
wrong-side of fun. For every step forward, Monster House
appears to shriek and run five back. A reliable playing experience
can be had by die-hard fans of the Top-Down Shooting genre
capitalised upon in the 1990’s, however, for fans of the film and
those looking for a game for their kids with something a bit new,
and remotely captivating, to offer, can we introduce to you Disney/Pixar:
Cars?
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